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The Bulls will take a leaf out of the success recipe that the Stormers used against the Western Force last weekend when they meet the Australians in a Super 14 rugby match in Perth on Friday.

Morris Gilbert writes in Beeld that Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said on Tuesday the Stormers had beaten the Force convincingly by defending brilliantly, getting the upper hand tactically and finishing well.

Ludeke said they expected the Force to produce a better performance than last week “but the Stormers showed how they could be beaten.

“What is encouraging, is that we are now much more at ease with the experimental laws and that we are more successful from broken play,” the coach said.

Bulls captain Fourie du Preez suspects that the Force dropped their guard last week after an outstanding tour of New Zealand.

“They won’t make the mistake of underestimating their opponents for a second consecutive week,” Du Preez said.

“But we know after our solid performance against the Blues that we’re still good enough to take on any team on equal footing.

“One of the reasons that we played so much better against the Blues than we had done against the Reds was that we were at full strength for the first time this season.

Stretch the game at all costs

“The return of Zane Kirchner, Bryan Habana and Pierre Spies made a world of difference to our confidence.

“We also managed to vary our game to launch counter-attacks against the Blues,” Du Preez said.

He added, however, “Against opponents such as the Force, who try to stretch the game at all costs, it remains important to keep playing within a structure.”

Du Preez and Ludeke were unwilling to comment on the performance of Australian referee James Leckie in their match against the Blues.

However, Ludeke said he was happy that the experienced New Zealander Steve Walsh would be in charge on Friday.

“Steve has not handled many games in which the experimental laws were in place but he is undoubtedly one of the best in the world. We like his decisiveness and consistency,” the coach said.

Ludeke has, as was expected, made no changes to the starting line-up. There is only one change to the 22 that did duty against the Blues. Jaco Engels takes the place of Hilton Lobberts on the bench.

A year ago JP Pietersen couldn’t stop scoring. Six matches into the tournament and he’s failed to get off the mark.

Scoring opportunities, admittedly, have been scarce for the winger. The Sharks, despite being placed second, have scored just 13 tries (the fourth lowest in the tournament). They didn’t look like turning it around against the rubble Reds in Durban on Saturday, despite conditions being good for an expansive approach. In fact, this campaign they have looked devoid of the attacking edge that had them billed as the one of the 2007 tournament’s great entertainers.

This must concern coach Dick Muir, who needs his side to find their attacking groove if they hope to return from their five-match Australasian tour with a home semi-final virtually wrapped up. What’s more, he needs the 2007 Pietersen to show up and punt the try thin 2008 version to the stand.

While Pietersen can be mitigated by the fact that he is receiving poor service from those inside him, the trademark quality of the world’s best wingers is their ability to work around the back – looking for scoring opportunities.

Bulls winger and IRB Player of the Year Bryan Habana is renowned for his work rate, and of the current crop of wingers the Stormers’ Tonderai Chavhanga (joint second highest try scorer) has shown a liking for appearing in the 10-12 channel, or on the opposite wing.

Pietersen needs to rekindle the hunger for try scoring he had last year, while those crafting the opportunities on his inside need to jack up their performances. The Hurricanes in Wellington is not the easiest place to go if you are struggling for form, but Pietersen and his team can take solace in the fact that they have leaked the most tries of the top four (16).

At this stage last season Pietersen was playing his part in the 59-16 demolition of the Reds in Brisbane – bagging a brace and tormenting defenders with his omnipresent nature. The wheel has turned quickly for Pietersen, who on Saturday cut a dejected figure as he watched the game pass him by.

On current form he has fallen back in the Springbok pecking order, with Chavhanga the standout winger, even ahead of Habana who was impressive against the Blues but needs more game time and more regular ball in hand opportunities to kick start his season.

Watching Pietersen plod through the first six matches of the tournament has been painful and the Sharks have to take collective responsibility for their ballistic missile failing to fire at present.

They’ve promised that they’ll bust through their try drought. JP Pietersen needs that to happen very soon.

Comment 2, posted at 02.04.08 06:56:01 by barend

Barend

yeah I agree JPP needs to start scoring tries pretty soon, but I am not overly concerned by it, for two reasons mainly.
1) Top try scorers (which JPP was in the ’07 S14) in tournaments seldom do so season after season.
2) If the Sharks had scored 30 tries in their 6 matches then I would be concerned, but it hasn’t so it means that it is NOT JPP that is going through a try drought it is the team as well. that will change in the coming weeks i think.

In a way you are right KSA. The whole team is going thru a bit of a dry spell but you’d expect a guy like JP to be at the right place at least twice or 3 times in 6 games. Odwa…and even Stefan…have managed to find good positions and have scored a few between them. He did set up Odwa’s try last weekend…and he’s been good defensively but if I was him I’d be digging deeper.

Comment 9, posted at 02.04.08 08:33:04 by blackshark

lost of beast pics

Comment 10, posted at 02.04.08 08:54:05 by robdylan

Been looking for one with Beast and Bis (my Love-Children )…so I couldn’t resist it…